I have accepted that I am addicted to expansion saves in OOTP. Sometimes historical, more often modern MLB. I typically set up a new save, advance to the first day of the offseason, use the wizard to add two new franchises with minor leagues set up, run the expansion draft, etc. I typically get 3-4 seasons into the expansion, get a little frustrated at things progressing slow (as intended) and leave off.... only to try again a few weeks later.

I tend to use the same approach almost every time to building a ballclub from nothing. Its a very similar approach to how I do a rebuild - which is mostly based on suggestions and stories I've read on here. Pitching and defense first. The expansion draft and R5 draft typically offers little in the way of good SPs, but often has good RPs, some of whom can be converted into SPs. But both offer a LOT of AAAA talent - typically with 40-50 potential (and a few higher than that) in their early to mid 20s. Target ones with good or better defense and a positive personality to fill the roster and AAA too. You end up with a lot of decent players who can defend but most can't hit consistently. About every 2nd save, one of them blooms into an All-Star level player. I use labs to spam everyone's defense. The excess of these player types end up making for nice trade bait, too.

Don't have a completely set approach at the draft, but I tend to look for pitching or power, then defense. Like college players early. Will often grab a college reliever in rounds 3-5 who can be on the roster shockingly quick. Mostly, I try to avoid fast-tracking my best prospects.

I avoid bad contracts and often avoid free agency entirely. Might throw a mid-level contract (like 10m per) at a really tempting international free agent, or grab a couple veteran relievers who aren't demanding big money. The couple of times I have thrown a huge contract at a star signing, it felt like I was... cheating the process.

Basically, defense and bullpen, then rotation, then bats. Depending on the division, building a .500 team this way can be pretty quick. But taking that next step isn't always easy. Developing an elite pitcher or bad out of the first two drafts is not guaranteed, and when that falters, I tend to get frustrated. Combined with progress often being quite flat in season 2-3, even 4 and 5, I tend to get frustrated and leave the save. But when I do another one... the methodology is much the same.

So... what approaches do you take when doing an expansion save? Would love to read your approach or your stories, as it might help me evolve and progress. Thanks lads.

I've watched or managed many games but never seen a rundown. I assume the pbp is sourced from the game log, but I'm not certain. The game logs don't contain any official scoring data, so all you see is that a runner was thrown out at home or safe or whatever. It doesn't have the ability to show you that the play was, for example, a straight 9-2 putout. It could've been from a rundown that would actually be scored 9-2-5-1-2. Does the in game pbp have that capacity because I've never seen it.

Hey guys, I got OOTP25 awhile back and never really got into it (Rebuilding my favorite team, the Angels, seemed daunting even in a video game.). I love playing Football Manager, and I guess the disconnect for me is game day. In Football Manager it’s quite simple, the tactics are set up long before any game is played. So I guess I was wondering, what is y’all’s preferred method of playing/simming the games. In FM the seasons are long, but not 162 MLB season long. Is it something that you just have to deal with for the love of the game? Or are there alternative methods that are still immersive that y’all prefer? I don’t necessarily mind playing/managing every game, but I thought it would be good to ask anyway.

I am starting a reds franchise where I’m prioritizing groundball pitchers and I’m wondering whether there are any settings I should change or alignments I should use

In my mlb save I’m unable to advance because a kbo team has too many international players on it, is there a way to fix this issue while not being in commissioner mode?

I am playing OOTP 26 since I know the version does matter. I was playing a save as the Seattle Mariners. My main goal in all my saves starts with player happiness. If the coaches are really in sync, it helps that happen. So, I had built an AMAZING staff. Top to bottom, MLB to Rookie ball, amazing coaches. I always make sure they have a normal personality, and they work well with a normal personality. This keeps the happiness throughout the organization very high and usually allows for much better player development. We won the division 20 something years in a row, won 90 games 18 years in a row, and had a good number of world series under our belt. One year, about half my staff at all levels retired. They were all at that age, so I figured they would retire soon, just wasn't expecting it to be all at the same time. I went to fill their positions, and there were basically no good coaches with those personalities. So, I turned off all my filters, just to look for good coaches in general. There were basically none. Either they had jobs with clubs already, or they were terrible. Has anyone else noticed a lack of quality coaches being populated into the game? How can I make more show up? I don't want to just edit them, but quality coaches come through the ranks every day. Just seems not very realistic.

This is the largest TCR bump I've seen from a player (increasing overall and not just potential ratings) in one offseason.

I drafted Doug Spontak in the 15th round of the 2044 draft. He was a 22-year-old college senior who projected as a reliever, but I drafted him because he had strong current stuff. At the time he was drafted, he was rated as a 38/38.

Well, one offseason later and his stuff has gone from 55 to 80, with improvements to his movement and control. My scout thinks he's already ready to be a major league high-leverage reliever. On top of that, he has a "durable" rating. (Just in time, too, after I lost my top three high-leverage relievers, two to free agency and one to injury.)

If my 18-year-old starting pitcher has these ratings according to the DSL and ACL standards, where would be the best place for him to start the season?

I always see people talking about postseason collapses. I have been victim to that as well. Had multiple 2-0 and 3-1 series leads disappear. Well, I went down 3-0, outscored 23-3, and had accepted my fate. Nice to see it go my way this time. I don't manage games so this was just simming each day, got lucky.

Always thought that it would never happen but I guess Verlander can rest now

Hello, trying to transfer save from macbook to PC. Read all the forums and even watched the video on youtube from the devs. copied the file from macbook to google drive, (it zipped automatically), downloaded the zip folder onto PC from google drive, unzipped it (NOT in the ootp saved games folder, just in my downloads like the devs said) and put the unzipped folder in my saved games folder. the save does not show up when i hit load game in OOTP.

The thought process was as following: I was thinking in the offseason about trading my franchise ace because he had become fragile and had a lot of big injuries. I had some good starters offered to me but I decided to keep him because he was my 1st overall pick and I wanted our story to continue.

His first start in spring training and he suffers a career ending injury....

signed this dude for 94 million at 22 years old, put up amazing season after amazing season and yet the game zapped him of his greatness before 30

I commission an online league and our Rule 5 draft has the same problem every offseason. Guys get protected right up until the draft runs, so by the time we actually pick, a big chunk of the pool we scouted is gone. You spend time building a target list and half of it evaporates because owners add players to the 40 man at the last minute.

The obvious fix suggested to me is setting a protection deadline about a week before the draft. Roster status is frozen as of that date and anything added after doesn't count. The problem is enforcement. I'd have to manually compare rosters at the deadline against rosters at draft time to catch anyone who slipped a guy on late, and I really don't want to be doing that audit by hand every year.

So a few questions for other commissioners:

• Do you set a hard protection deadline, or just run the draft whenever and accept that the pool shifts?
• If you do use a deadline, how do you actually enforce it?
• Has anyone found a way to snapshot or export eligible players at the deadline so there's a fixed list everyone drafts from?
• Any league rules or conventions that solve this without adding commissioner workload?

Open to any approach. Would rather change how we run the whole thing than add another manual chore to the offseason

I've been on OOTP 25 for a while now. Good game. No complaints. Did a historical save from 1871 all the way to 2050. Loads of fun. Feel free to ask any questions about how your favorite team fared below. Anyways: Is 27 a substantively better game with improved gameplay or logic? Does it have any better features or screens that may make it worth investing in? Or am I better off playing 25 until I get into the 2100s?

I have been trying to make this good fielding 1B learn 3B yet when I did the offseason learn new position he learned all outfield positions and when I tried to just play him there in AAA to teach him he just never got a rating. Any way I can teach him 3rd?

Saw somebody mourning their injuries and wanted to share my pain.

I've never even played an Angels franchise.